Rhode Island ballot news

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island: A newly created commission in the state of Rhode Island may be the key to decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana. The commission met at the State House on November 18, 2009 to discuss the issue of the drug. The panel included a criminal-defense attorney, a retired court administrator, a prisoner-rights activist, the head of the Rhode Island nurses’ association, a medical doctor and a Harvard University lecturer who wrote a book on the legalization and taxation of marijuana.

According to reports, the recommendation the group might make to the state: “roll back the state’s marijuana penalty laws to reduce the prison population and free the police to pursue other crimes.”[1]